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Creating the Vision

Written by: Jonathan Goldhill

Article Overview: Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, has stated, “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” Clear visions have helped shape and propel impressive companies. For example, Fred Smith, founder of Federal Express, had a vision that packages could be delivered around the United States by the next morning. Disney wanted to make families smile. Microsoft wanted to create beneficial software that would compel people to have a computer on every desk at work, home and school. Coke wanted to have its refreshing beverages within the reach of every person in the world. Dominos wanted you to have hot, delicious pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less or it was free.

Creating the Vision

Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, has stated, “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” Clear visions have helped shape and propel impressive companies. For example, Fred Smith, founder of Federal Express, had a vision that packages could be delivered around the United States by the next morning. Disney wanted to make families smile. Microsoft wanted to create beneficial software that would compel people to have a computer on every desk at work, home and school. Coke wanted to have its refreshing beverages within the reach of every person in the world. Dominos wanted you to have hot, delicious pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less or it was free.

Jonathan Swift said, “Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.” Don’t sell vision creation short. You must learn to understand, value, and appreciate the essential role of an exciting vision for a healthy and growing business. Start thinking and planning more. Escape the tyranny of the urgent and focus on one of the most important tasks you can do – create an exciting future destiny and direction for your business.

Effective visions also help lead you, the leader – keeping you motivated and challenged.
“Creating and living an empowering mission statement has a significant impact on the way we spend our time,” said Stephen Covey in his book, First Things First. “When we talk about time-management, it seems ridiculous to worry about speed before direction, about saving minutes when we may be wasting years. Vision is the fundamental force that drives everything else in our lives.”

Let me state a warning. Fully realize that your employees must buy into you as a leader before they buy into your vision. They must believe and trust in you to believe and trust in your vision. You may need to do some repair work to establish yourself as a caring and competent leader before you start creating and selling your vision. You will need to connect with their hearts before connecting with their heads.

To create a new vision or sharpen and update an existing one, allow yourself a month. See yourself as the Chief Listening Officer during this early phase. You cannot build a vision or business on your own. For buy-in later, seek the input of others now. Include your employees, customers, suppliers, distributors and business advisers in the process. Spend a week or two gathering input from these stakeholders about your company’s direction, strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities. If they do not participate in this creation phase, they will not want to participate in the vision implementation phase. Also, study your industry trends and your current and emerging competitors. On all fronts, do your homework.

After listening to and studying others, be certain to listen to your inner voice and gut. While other’s input is critical, know that the buck stops with you. You are ultimately responsible for the vision of your business. Your vision ultimately becomes your company’s direction, objectives, priorities, strategies, and tactics. It is that magical and that important.

Therefore, get away from the daily interruptions and go into your CEO cave. This could be your home office, at a coffee shop, at a park, library or beach. Spend two to three days forming or crystallizing a picture of what you want the business to look like in one year, three years, and five years. See things the way they can be. Dream the big dream; unleash your spirit. See the business in your heart that you truly want to create. A bold, daring, super-sized vision, even if only partially achieved, yields greater rewards than a small, wimpy vision fully achieved.

Remember, there are no rules while you create a desired future state. However, don’t deal in pure fantasy. There is a difference between a vision and a delusion. Stay somewhat grounded. You must see things the way they are now in order to visualize the way they can be. You must build from a foundation of realism, acknowledging your company’s current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. However, once you gather the facts, let go and let her rip.

Grab hold of the future, bring it into the present, and then go about creating it. Give yourself and your employees something to be proud of. Find a voice to express the common dreams, emotions, potential and needs of your team. Let your vision inspire, motivate, and galvanize your team. Small visions do not stir the soul. Give people a reason to follow, something to shoot for. Make the vision intoxicating -- something that captures their imagination. Show them the finish line in bright, Technicolor detail. Sell more to their hearts than to their heads. People change when their feelings change, not when merely their thoughts change. Powerful visions unite groups and take them to new heights and places.

Keep in mind, employees want purpose and passion to lift them and propel them. Find a larger purpose for your company than merely making money. Don’t settle for being a random collection of people and assets trying to make money. A purely financial focus will not sustain the troops over the long term. Don’t believe it? James Collins and Jerry Porras prove this point in their classic book on management Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies.

Make coming to work a meaningful and fulfilling event for your employees. People want to work in a challenging and rewarding environment. They want to learn, grow and reach their potential – the full expression of their talent. People are drawn to great leaders, great visions and great causes.

While coaching a client on the creation of his company’s vision, he was so moved during our vision writing exercise that the emotion in him brought him to tears. Weeks later, when reading his completed vision statement aloud to someone else, I was similarly moved. That’s big! And this is what moves people, including your customers.


Having trouble thinking big? Ask yourself bigger questions!
• Why does our enterprise exist?
• If our business were shut down, what would be missing in this world?
• What is our crusade? What could be our crusade?
• How do we engage the hearts, minds and souls of our employees?
• How can we make our company great, meaningful and different?
• How can we change our industry, community, and even the world?
• How can we measurably improve the lives of customers?
• How can we make our employees and their families’ lives better and more fulfilling?
• What higher calling or spiritual dimension can we embrace?

After listening to others for two weeks and thinking deeply yourself for two weeks, a vision for your company should be coming into focus. Bottom line, this vision should help your employees and yourself re-acquire the fire and passion for your company’s direction and purpose.

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